The Halfway House

 I arrived too late for dinner last Thursday. I had no appetite after the flight. I haven't had much of an appetite since - although the food provided by Aramark is better than it was 11 years ago,and better than what the BOP fed the west compound during my last month in quarantine at Fort Dix. (Speaking of that quarantine,i have not been asked here if I had been vaccinated opr quarantined, so what was the purpose of that last month at Ft. Dix?) The fellow on the door, call him a guard, poked at my bags (the monster bag became 2) and wanded me down and kept my prescription medicines (3 kinds of inhalers for my COPD). Then sent me upstairs to the third floor.

The third floor did not appear greatly changed in 10 years, 3 months, and 18 days. That's how long it has been since I left for prison. The place was packed to the gills. About 3 times as many inmates as when I left, and no pretrial detainees. Another difference: no water dripping down from above.

The VOA put me on a top bunk in the middle of the room, close to an electric outlet. No one told them I had a CPAP machine. The bunk beds are steel and are the same used back in 2010 when I arrived on the first leg of this misadventure. The bed wobbles. Ten years of taking the top bunk at Ft. Dix and I have had enough of them. No need - so far - to worry about being attacked. Since there is no place outside of the bed for my CPAP machine,I sleep with it; my ball and chain.

I had another surprise- the bathroom. No longer do the smokers migrate there when staff leaves the floor. They have become a feature, semi-permanent residents, instead. Along with an almost nightly crap game that would never have been tried back in 2010. Maybe it is the sheer number of person crammed into the available space.

That tow of the toilets do not function shocked me. Is this why the rules do not allow for the phone cameras to take pictures of the place?

That the attitude of staff towards inmates seems to run heavily towards disdain. Or I might be overly sensitive. The attitude started me thinking halfway house might be a mistake.

Meeting my case worker kept alive my doubts. She is about thirty with a criminal justice degree from Indiana University. I get the sense of someone who wanted to be a cop.  She put a GPS tracker on me without explaining its necessity. I was thinking there would be no going out until I got a second ID - about a month or so. She in motion my getting a new Social Security card. She sent me to the Sheriff's to register as a sex offender. There was a snafu there that got fixed yesterday. She has also set in motion my getting health insurance. OTOH, no going to Kokomo to sort out Dad's estate. I did not get the feeling she was happy to meet me.

Right now I am thinking the halfway house will not be a profitable experience. I am not even sure my Ft. Dix case manager Eric Morales would have helped me get a Social Security card,if I had stayed at Ft. Dix.The sex offender registry would've happened no matter what else went on. But not being able to deal with Dad's estate until October puts my sisters and myself at a disadvantage.

I will wait to see what happens. I always thought this place would not enhance my chances of regaining a productive life. So I will try to be patient to balance out my prejudices

sch

5/11/21.